Australia will trial ‘age assurance’ tech to bar kids from online porn

Representation Pic

Responding to a resurgence in gender-based violence and deaths in Australia, the National Cabinet has committed almost AUSD 1 billion to a range of strategies. Tackling "online harms" was among the new commitments, including the introduction of a pilot programme to explore the use of age-checking technologies to restrict children's access to inappropriate material online.

Under-age exposure to adult content is considered to be a contributory factor to domestic violence through fuelling harmful attitudes towards relationships. Controlling access to adult material is also aligned with debate over access to social media sites and other age-related restrictions.

While the details are yet to come, a roadmap for this was proposed more than a year ago by the eSafety Commissioner. Recent events have clearly spurred action, but there are questions over the effectiveness of tools to check the age of website visitors. Implementing and enforcing these will be challenging and there is the potential for people to bypass such "age assurance" controls. But doing nothing is not an option - and this may well protect at least some impressionable minds, authorities say.

Shocking data from 2023

>> 75 per cent of children aged 16-18 have seen online pornography
>> One third of those were exposed before the age of 13
>> Half saw it between ages 13 and 15.

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